It's not the altitude that causes it to be an advantage, it's usually the 105k+ fans. Less than 55,000 fans showed up for this game. Once again, no one cared about this game in Mexico. People in Mexico don't even consider USA to be their biggest rival because they don't respect the USMNT bunker ball because they play Mexico the same as Costa Rica, Salvador, Trinidad-Tobago do.

It's usually the Mexican-Americans who consider it a rivalry because they have to deal with irrational Americans and are brainwashed by ESPN and Univision trying to make it a rivalry.

Meh, the altitude plays a part, doesn't depend on who is in the stands or anything else. The US almost always plays counter attack ball unless its against Barbados or Suriname.

Also, living 80 miles or so from the border, there are a ton of Mexicans who take the rivalry seriously, anyone who says otherwise is thoroughly overestimating the Mexican side and underestimating the American side.

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I'm sure qrich knows what im talking about, with rooting for Armenia. Except they are one of UEFA's punching bags so the scenario is a little different. Also, qrich you mentioned that the US playing in Buffalo would make a difference, but what you fail to realize (just like ballerstatus) is that key players like Donovan and Dempsey are from Southern CA and Texas respectively. How exactly would that give them an advantage over Mexican players from freezing places like Chihuahua, Durango and Zacatecas?

Yeah, I root for Armenia but if the two sides were to meet, I'd be watching impartially but expecting the US to win, and they probably would in a high scoring match. Armenia's third best player (Yura Movsisyan) wanted to play for the US, but didn't invite him and that ticked me off. Also after the last cycle, I don't see Armenia as being punching bags anymore, but being a 3rd/4th place team in the following cycles. Punching bags remain to be Azerbaijan, Andorra, Malta, San Marino, Iceland, etc.

As far as the weather, those guys have played in cold weather before and adapted well. With a couple months a year of USMNT training camp, I fail to see them having trouble adjusting.